King
by Sookie's Secret Santa
Summary: Promotional story for the 'Sookie's Secret Santa' story swap. A fun little fic exploring Bill's secret admirer and Eric discovering the bigger picture...
1. Chapter 1

**King V's Sheriff**

He sat in his executive chair and leaned back so he could cross his ankles on the top of his desk. Eric Northman, Sheriff of Area 5 was not use to waiting, and to top it off he was being kept waiting by someone he considered a lesser even if in actuality he was not. He had decided to meet at his club, Fangtasia, this gave him home turf advantage. He was not worried by his visitor but having an added advantage is always good.

Seven minutes and thirty three seconds later Pam interrupted what his lover would call 'downtime', to announce his visitors arrival. No matter what - he would make Sookie his lover again. She had reacted badly to the witch situation; but it was nothing he felt he could not resolve. He sat straight in his chair; even sitting you could clearly tell he was a tall imposing man. He rested his elbows on the arms of the chair and steepled his fingers just under his chin. To anyone who didn't know him this gesture looked contemplative, but his visitor would know better.

"Sheriff" The visitor stood just in the door Eric bowed his head slightly but never rose. There was a smirk on his face telling Eric that he did indeed know why he was requested here tonight. This was almost enough to make the Sheriff's ice cold blood boil.

"Would you like to explain?" Eric's voice was low and menacing, his tone broke no argument. He was playing a risky game, showing such disrespect for one's King usually leads to ashes.

"Sheriff I am not sure what you would like me to explain..."

"Bill, don't push me..." William Compton was a proud man; he still stood in the doorway to Eric's office not faltering in his stance. He was well aware Eric was trying to bait him, Bill would never win in a fight between the two men but he did have the resources of being King and Eric needed to be reminded of that. Bill knew Eric would find out eventually and he also knew Eric would blame him for knowing first.

Both men stared at each other across the grey linoleum floor, the office space was practical not pretty. Bill wondered how many acts of violence and debauchery this office had actually seen. It made him writhe inside to know that his sweet and innocent Sookie spent time in this den of iniquity. She was the reason he still lived in the area, the slim hope that his Sheriff would mess up and maybe Sookie would come back to him. Sookie had seemed to forgive him, but her unwillingness to become involved in Vampire politics was hampering any efforts to rekindle the romance they once shared.

"Ask your King I have no need to explain myself, you may have friends in high places but you still only a Sheriff." Bill meant for his words to bite but what he did not realise was that Eric liked being 'just' a Sherriff, he enjoyed the level of freedom a monarch would never be allowed but just enough power to be able to make a comfortable life for himself and his progeny.

"As my King," Eric hissed the word through his lips, "I expect you to share relevant information about my area. Or have you forgotten that you actually reside IN my area." Eric wondered why Bill would choose to carry on living in his old home, there was a reason Sophie-Anne was Sheriff of area 1 as well as Queen of Louisiana.

"I am well aware of the protocol and you have had notifications as required. What you are asking for now is not area related, you are asking for purely personal reasons." Bill was enjoying having the upper hand for once with Eric. He had been working with his own team of witches trying to solve the Marnie problem and had happened to discover this recent development. If he could work this to his advantage he could spend a very happy eternity living in his old southern home with an old fashioned Southern Belle of his very own.

"Stop trying to avoid the issue. I know that we have... for want of a better word... a controller. An orchestrator, a creator of destinies." Eric watched as Bills facial expression gave away the acknowledgment of what was said.

"We need to be careful how we discuss this; it is a very volatile subject." Since Bill had first found out about the Producer, he had been doing some research and found that he was not the only creator he was just the most notorious. He had a habit of doing his own thing just to spite the fans.

"I have found a website where people actually play god with our lives, I am heartened by the fact that I seem to have so many loyal fans that will always give me what I want, and it's only a shame that most of them kill you off pretty quickly." Eric smiled as he added insult to injury. "Bill Bashers seem to be rife."

Bill was surprised at how candid Eric was being, he wondered if he had thought all of the ramifications through. Bill was currently in a situation of great power which could be to the detriment of Mr Northman. Bill walked into the room, closing the door behind him. He sat down on the sofa, taking his time to straighten out the leg of his pants and smoothen his shirt before addressing Eric. Trying to give himself time to think and strategise.

"I have no need to concern myself with the riff raff that write the type of drivel you refer to, I have Alan Ball on my side and he seems to be telling my tale rather well." The smugness rolling off of Bill was almost sickly. It enraged Eric.

At the same instant both vampires were on their feet facing each other across the office. Eric growled and Bill crouched into a fighting pose.

"You will never again have the affections of MY lover; you have hurt her too much."

"She will forgive me as she is a good Christian girl and her religion insists on turning the other cheek."

"You are a fool!"

The fight erupted and furniture was smashed to splinters and files were thrown with papers flying around the small space like tickertape on parade day. Bill had Eric pinned to the floor and was holding him down with a knee across his windpipe and the other pushed into the flesh of his stomach, this did not hold Eric for long and Pam entered the room to find Eric flipping Bill off of him and trapping him against the wall.

"Boys, why the agro?" Pam knew better than to enter the room with two fighting male vampire's.

Both Eric and Bill held their positions, neither giving an inch, as they looked toward Pam stood in the doorway. Both had a sudden urge to reset to their original positions. They didn't understand where these urges where coming from but they both obeyed. Eric was better at hiding his concern but Bill was visibly worried by the turn of events.

"Now you have calmed down, I'll leave you to talk like adults." Pam sashayed down the hall and out of sight.

"I think we have just been controlled..." Bill had a habit of stating the obvious.

"I think we need to take back the control, how do we find or contact this 'Producer'?"

"Alan is notoriously hard to contact but he may talk to me as he seems to have a soft spot for me. I think it wise for you to stay away, after all he not only cut all you hair off but he had you a snivelling wreck at the feet of a human witch." Bill was enjoying pointing out Eric's misfortunes. "He seems to want to turn you into a laughing stock rather than the cocky know-it-all you think you are."

Eric growled but could argue as this Alan Ball, did seem to have it in for him.

"I think we should work together on this, call a _temporary_ truce to deal with this issue."

"I will contact my witch." Bill stood to leave but Eric called him back.

"You do realise we could end up in a completely different reality? I have read the original and things are very different, Charlaine Harris is the originator of our story she seems to be our best bet for a better future." Eric was hoping Bill had not found Charlaine's work, he was not finally dead like a lot of other stories but he had had his fair share of hardship.

"I think my main concern at the moment is getting caught up in the SSS." Eric looked confused he hadn't come across this SSS.

"Explain?"

"Do we have to go through this again? I am your King; I do not need to explain myself to you!" Bill was getting tired of the complete lack of respect Eric had for him of his position.

Eric just rolled his eye and sat down to wait for an explanation. After a few minutes of staring each other down Bill started to explain.

"I have found a profile on the most used Fanfiction site, it is advertising a Secret Santa. They are to put their names in a hat, they will be writing one off stories they call one shots and they will be posted anonymously. These gift one shots are getting to be quite popular but unfortunately they seem to be one sided." Bill stopped and realised he may have said too much. He resented the lack of fans willing to write stories about him, they all seem to fall for the stereotypical lead male, and they all seemed to be drawn to the tall, blond Viking. He didn't want to be jealous but the green eyed monster was growing within.

"Do they tend to favour me?" Eric had a smug smile as he tried to get Bill to admit his lack of fans willing to join in this Secret Santa.

"I have plenty of fans; they still have 9 days to sign up for this silly little game."

"You only think it is silly because they don't seem to like you." There was almost a chuckle in Eric's voice.

Bill rose and squared his shoulder, he waited for Eric to rise as was custom when a monarch left the room. Eric just looked at him and stayed defiantly sat.

"I will contact you when I have initiated conversation with the witch."

"You do that your majesty." Eric had other ideas; he had plans of his own. He had contact in high places and was sure he would be able to reach these authors.

Bill left Fangtasia with every intention of contacting the Producer, Alan Ball. He may even suggest a character cull for the start of season 5; he would recommend the killing spree start with the Viking.

Eric was left typing away at his computer; he found the profile for Sookie's Secret Santa. He found the title amusing. He shot off an email to the organisers Jan of Arc (he wondered if she was related to Joan) and Blakes Boogie; he explained the situation and asked for their help. Moments later he was enraged by their response, they replied stating that it was a fandom wide fic exchange and they were actually trying to encourage more Bill fan's to join in, they also explained that they do not actually have direct contact with Alan Ball or Charline Harris. Their parting line gave him hope; _you could always join in yourself and then your destiny would be yours and yours alone._

_**A/N: All of the information you need to join in with our Secret Santa style fic exchange can be found at www . fanfiction . net /u/3335966/Sookies_Secret_Santa we hope that writers of all characters will see how much fun this project will be. There are only 9 days to send us an email to let us know you are interested in participating. Please don't hesitate to get in touch with us if you have any questions, either by PMing the profile or sending an email to the address on our profile. We hope to hear from you soon!**_


	2. Chapter 2

As a special offer - we're willing to let the 42nd writer to throw their name into our Secret Santa hat choose who they will be Secret Santa for! At the moment we have 40 writers taking part - so get your email off to sookies. secret . santa (at) gmail . com (remove spaces) quick so you don't miss out!

Full details on the Festive Fic Exchange here: www . fanfiction . net/u/3335966/Sookies_Secret_Santa


	3. Time is running out!

There are FOUR days left to get your Secret Santa gift fic back to us!

When you send your gift fic to sookies(.)secret(.)santa at gmail dot com you should get an email back saying that we got it safely.

If you haven't had an email to confirm we've received your fic – please get in touch with us as soon as possible.

The gift fics will be posted **from** the 18th December 2011 – this is a big job and will take time to get all the stories uploaded and published and that doesn't take a possible flood limit on posting new stories into account! All fics **will** be published before the 24th December.


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